posted at 7:31 pm on July 2, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

As I mentioned last week, there’s been some discussion on Capitol Hill about the potential for splitting up the “farm bill” into at least two separate pieces of legislation after its epic and unexpected crash-and-burn in June. Separating the federal food stamp program and agriculture programs — ending their convenient perma-coupling that has united both rural and urban interests in defending the expensive, economically damaging, and special-interest serving status quo — would shine a lot of extra light on the bill’s individual programs, opening them up to more direct scrutiny and dissapating their usual omnibus legislative security. It could potentially mean curtains for a lot of the agribusiness lobby’s favorite subsidies and handouts — and they don’t like that at all. Via The Hill:

On Tuesday, K street fired off a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) opposing that effort. It was signed by 532 national and regional organizations, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union, and major commodity groups such as the National Cotton Council and Southern Peanut Farmers Federation to the National Milk Producers Federation and American Soybean Association.

“America’s agriculture, conservation, rural development, finance, forestry, energy and crop insurance companies and organizations strongly urge you to bring the Farm Bill (H.R. 1947, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013) back to the Floor as soon as possible,” the letter states.

“It is vital for the House to try once again to bring together a broad coalition of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to provide certainty for farmers, rural America, the environment and our economy in general and pass a five-year farm bill upon returning in July,” it states. “We believe that splitting the nutrition title from the rest of the bill could result in neither farm nor nutrition programs passing, and urge you to move a unified farm bill forward.”

The letters comes as Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.), who is leading the fight to split the bill, expressed increasing confidence in his quest this week.

Oh, good grief. House leadership is currently polling their members and is reportedly going to let a whip check lead the way forward following the recess, and unfortunately, the wishes of the agribusiness lobbies will likely weigh heavily in the minds of representatives on both sides of the aisle. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The ability of agricultural interests to unite both Democrats and Republicans in the defense of spectacularly poor policies never ceases to amaze.

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and I’ll say it again: The ability of agricultural interests to unite both Democrats and Republicans in the defense of spectacularly poor policies never ceases to amaze.
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I’m a cow/calf producing rancher.
Please stop subsidizing agriculture.
I’m tired of watching land that shouldn’t be farmed get dug up to farm stuff so it can wither and die so these kinds of farmers can collect on the insurance.
I’m tired of paying CROP rents for PASTURE land. This wouldn’t be happening if the Federal Govt would stop setting the price of land not fit for crops too high bcs of their farm payments.
FACT: I know a young farmer who built a brand new house and had it paid for in 5 years bcs he entered a program where the government told him how to farm his land in every detail.
He’s a high school dropout.
FACT: I’m watching farmers dig up some of the last native prairie here in SW ND with CATS & BACKHOES to removed the rocks from $hitty little knobs so they can farm it.
CRP’s out. Now digging up every piece of $hit land is IN.
I have a pasture that shares a fence with a farm field that is all blow sand. It originally used to be in CRP and for good reason: it’s highly erodible land.
But now they are farming it again. For the payment. It doesn’t matter if the crop fails. They GET A PAYMENT.
Meanwhile, my fence gets buried in sand & we’ve got to lift it up every year bcs of the erosion.
These programs pick winners & losers.
FRACK YOU ALL WHO THINK THIS $HIT’S A GOOD IDEA.
END ALL SUBSIDIES.

I know that Rs stand for their clients against all other interests, but there may be a switch coming around. I also know that the structure of the US has been firmly dictated by the socialist and state-run capitalist factions for a long, long time. The central planners have become even stronger since Reagan.

but there may be a shift. The Rs are playing a dangerous game stabbing their voters in the back time after time. This was on LI this pm

the Rs have play the ‘lesser of two evils’ game for many decades, while cashing in big.

In the spring of 2013 the Republican National Committee released a report, the “Growth and Opportunity Project,” providing an assessment of the state of their party that began by stating that it was “time for the Party to learn once again how to appeal to more people.”

What this report failed to do, and “Switching Behavior” seeks to address, is the generation of meaningful insights about how the Republican Party’s adherents are interacting with the brand as it stands. No matter what outreach the RNC recommends to various segmented groups, if they do not address the four insights revealed by “Switching Behavior,” their cause will be a hopeless one.

i don’t think the Rs know how bad things are for them. They’ll play the same cards..but like in 2012 their ‘guys’ won’t show at the polls. All the R heads will rub their heads and say, well..we aren’t socialist enough…let’s move Forward

The amp is emerging…center-left Rs and left-lib Ds. Europe has many parties…maybe it is time. The Freedom party could play a strong role if they are needed to get to 50 votes in the Senate.

All over America where anyone farms anything this is happening. I just traveled by car through NE,IL,IN,MO and it’s everywhere.
All the farmers I know, no matter how conservative in their politics, are government wh0res. ALL OF THEM.
There are so many tales I could tell you on this subject that would just do nothing but continually pi$$ you off.
Ranchers I know are not all wh0res, but so many of them are giving up and becoming wh0res for the $$.
Unless you are independently wealthy, you cannot farm anymore without becoming a wh0re. I really don’t think it’s possible. Not to compete with other farmers, anyway.
You’d have to be wealthy and own all of your equipment outright and have all your land paid off.
We’re in up over our eyeballs. Well maybe not there yet, but almost.
We pay off the note, hopefully some of the debt, and that very day borrow for the next year.
If I wasn’t a teacher & if hubby didn’t drive truck on the side independently, IDK HTF we’d make it bcs we’re barely making it now.
My niece & her husband ranch out near Ekalaka MT & they just bought a team to hay & rake with and such bcs they cannot afford the fuel anymore.
This is pathetic. It’s gotten so if you don’t game the subsidy system you’re a chump & you can’t be competitive.
IT’s disgusting.

to provide certainty for farmers

Why the he11 should farmers have any more certainty in life than the rest of us?

GWB on July 3, 2013 at 9:46 AM

I’ve said this very thing over & over again. Mother Nature isn’t anymore predictable or unpredictable than the market.
I’m in agriculture and my living is no more special than the mom & pop store in town.
The only way I could see agriculture needing any attention was if there were some horrible disaster crisis where food production became a national security issue.
That is the only way I see it needing any meddling from govt.